The present invention relates to a method and a device for providing a zone of clean air at an operation area by means of an air treatment device, wherein a lighting device is provided for illuminating the operation area. The invention also relates to use of said device.
The purpose of ventilating operation areas is to avoid as far as possible infections of patients being operated on. Infections are caused by bacteria-carrying airborne particles contaminating the operation area. Particularly the operation personnel generates airborne bacteria-carrying particles. It is the direct drop-off of these particles in the exposed operation area of the patient which is one of the main reasons for the spreading of infections in the operation premises.
At the present improved ventilating devices for operation premises, the operation lighting is most often located between a so called LAF (Laminar Air Flow)-ceiling, emitting a laminar, downwardly directed flow of air, and the operation area. The operation lighting disturbs the flows of air partly by its location and partly by the convection currents generated by the heating effect of the lighting. Both disturbances give rise to stagnation zones where bacteria-carrying airborne particles can be concentrated and is an important danger factor for bacterial propagation in the operation area.
Present ventilating ceilings, the so called LAF-ceilings, are mostly connected to an infrastructure/air treatment plant which is fixedly built into the hospital and which provide said LAF-ceilings with treated supply air. This infrastructure requires a great deal of engineering during installation and it is most often a building or heating, water and sanitation contractor carrying through the installation. The engineering and contractor's work is most often bought in by local heating, water and sanitation engineers and contractors who mostly know very little about medicine and transmissions of infections.
Present ventilating ceilings, the so called LAF-ceilings, also require very large air flows to compensate for the equipment located between the ceiling and the operation area. Furthermore, since the present ventilating devices are fixedly built into the ceiling of the operation premises, they must cover all types of surgery taking place in said operation premises. Thereby, the ventilating devices become large and require large volumes of filtered ventilating air, resulting in expensive, bulky installations and high operating costs.
The large ventilating ceilings must also through their size compensate for the convection currents of the operation personnel generated within the extension of the ceilings. A substantial part of the bacteria-carrying particles is generated in these convection currents.
Methods and devices for providing zones of clean air are previously known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,577 and WO 2005/017419, but these methods and devices are not specifically adapted to generate zones of clean air for operation areas. U.S. Pat. No. 6,811,593 relates to an air treatment device for, inter alia, operation areas, but this device is adapted to blow air in horizontal directions. The device neither considers the temperature of the supplied air relative to the temperature of the surrounding air in the premises nor the thermal zoning in the premises.